Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.,) blocked Senator Ted Cruz’s resolution calling for the Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, saying that his committee is already investigating the scandal.
“There is nothing of value that a special prosecutor would bring to the table,” Wyden said on the Senate floor. “They ought to be reserved when there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing inside the government.”
The Finance Committee chairman emphasized that he and ranking member Orrin Hatch have a report on the scandal forthcoming. “We can bring the facts to light with our own investigators,” Wyden said.
“The Senate committee can’t indict anyone,” Cruz replied.
Wyden said that the report would be ready for release but for the discovery that two years’ of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails have been lost.
“We had [IRS commissioner John Koskinen] come to our office and this has just been one example, it happens to be very recent, of the bipartisan efforts that have been made looking into this matter,” Wyden said, adding that he has consulted with the IRS inspector general’s office about the IG probe into the lost emails.
“They briefed our staff just yesterday on their workplan for getting their investigation done promptly,” he said.